


come on pretty baby (kiss me deadly)

by lexa_lives_in_us



Series: we don't even have to try (it's always a good time) [2]
Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Domestic Rosa Diaz/Gina Linetti, F/F, Minor Jake Peralta/Amy Santiago, also pimento appears, but he's trash, but i keep forgetting he exists so, dianetti, didn't feel like tagging the whole DAMN precinct, it's dianetti, milton mentioned, peraltiago in the background, really everyone makes an appearance, rosa and enigma are the best duo, rosa is smitten with the enigma, so i got rid of him at some point
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:08:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21911953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lexa_lives_in_us/pseuds/lexa_lives_in_us
Summary: Charles holds up the phone so that Rosa can FaceTime a terribly exhausted Gina and the minuscule human she’s holding in her arms.“That’s the ugliest baby I’ve ever seen.” Rosa says.Charles inhales a horrified gasp, and Milton’s voice from somewhere out of sight exclaims “Excuse me?!” But Gina bursts into an exhausted laugh.“She is, isn’t she? Finally someone with some common sense in here. Or well, not in here.”Rosa smirks at Boyle before looking back at the screen.“So? What’s the verdict?” She asks, and Gina winks at her.“The Enigma.” Gina proudly announces. “The Enigma Linetti.”orthe dianetti family no one really asked for
Relationships: Charles Boyle & Rosa Diaz, Jake Peralta/Amy Santiago, Rosa Diaz & Enigma Linetti, Rosa Diaz/Gina Linetti
Series: we don't even have to try (it's always a good time) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1545223
Comments: 23
Kudos: 112





	1. ONE

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a one shot. Like. A drabble. I swear.  
> I'm fourteen pages deep and I see no end.  
> [Un-beta'd]

**CHAPTER ONE**

* * *

Rosa locks the door behind Holt and closes her eyes, pressing her forehead against the cold wood.

It’s late, it’s starting to rain outside, and the clock in the oven turns to 00:00, which means it’s officially Monday. She fucking hates Mondays.

She turns around, her back against the door, and throws a glance at the suitcase she has prepared in a haze an hour ago.

She has to leave.

And she has to do it fast.

And yet, she is rooted to the spot. She can’t bring herself to move, she can’t find in herself the strength to even separate from the door.

That last decision, at least, is made for her when a loud knocking make her jump out of her own skin.

Without even realizing it, she has her gun in her hand, her heart beating a million miles a minute.

“Girl, I know you’re in there, so open the fuck up, will ya?”

Rosa’s heart slows down, and she takes a deep breath of relief, immediately unlocking and pulling the door open.

Gina walks in without waiting for a specific invite, and makes a bee line for the fridge, starting to scavenge for food.

“Holt called me. Told me you were gonna leave the country, which, hello-oh?! He shouldn’t be talking about this stuff on the phone. Rookie.”

Rosa lets the door close behind her, still unable to move.

She feels that if she takes a step in either direction, that’s what she’ll end up doing.

If she sidesteps, she can grab the suitcase and leave, sending it to Malaysia, then giving her the chance to fly to Argentina.

If she backs away, she can forgo the suitcase and make a run for the door, saving herself from fifteen years in jail.

But if she steps forward, toward Gina, she’ll stay.

And sure, Holt’s words have struck a chord in her, but she hasn’t made a decision yet.

She can’t decide, she can’t-

Gina looks up from the apple she’s holding in her hand and raises one eyebrow.

“You can’t leave, Rosa.” She says. “I’m having Fetus in a couple of months and Beyoncé knows I won’t trust Amy with babysitting. I’d come back to find my baby in a pantsuit.”

Rosa’s lips tilt upward and Gina grin victoriously.

“You are not naming the kid Fetus.” Rosa says, and locks the apartment door, reaching for Gina.

They curl up on the couch, a mug of hot coffee in both of their hands.

Gina’s decaf, and her cup is the one she’s forced Rosa to buy for her, the one shaped as a wolf that is absolutely impossible to drink from.

Rosa’s spiked, because of course Gina has a bottle of liquor in her bag and of course Gina knows that Rosa can’t be sober right now.

They put on Gilmore Girls re-runs and they sit in silence for what feels like hours, which Rosa thinks is almost a miracle, considering the woman she’s sitting with.

“Holt left five minutes before you showed up.” She eventually says, and Gina screams at the tv for Rory to “Make up your damn mind girl, _God.”_ Before humming in response.

“Your apartment is ten minutes away from here.”

Gina hums again.

“Yeah, and?”

“He didn’t call you. You were already on your way here.”

Gina shakes her head at the tv with a laugh and pats Rosa’s knee.

“Yeah, ‘cause I knew you were gonna do something really stupid. Doy?!”

Rosa stares at her friend for a long moment, until she feels Gina squirm under her gaze.

“You were going to regret it, eventually.” Gina says, quietly. “And maybe he’s a runner, but you’re not.”

Rosa flinches. He.

Adrian. Adrian who is in Argentina. Adrian who has convinced her to run away with him.

Adrian, whom she hasn’t told Gina about.

“How did you-“

“Oh, Rosie.” Gina chuckles, eyes still glued on the tv. “I know everything, remember?”

Her hand is still on Rosa’s knee, and Rosa slowly places hers on top of it. Gina finally turns to look at her and grins.

Rosa’s breath hitches and she feels the strong, crazy impulse to...

_Kiss her._

She can’t. She is engaged. She loves Adrian. She might go to jail.

_Exactly, kiss her._

Gina is with Milton. Gina is gonna have a baby.

_Kiss-_

She squeezes her hand and turns back to the tv.

The sun rises on the two of them still holding hands in front of Gilmore Girls, and five hours after Rosa goes to jail.

She really fucking hates Mondays.

Rosa’s first couple of months in jail are not too bad. She manages to drive Holt and Terry nuts from behind the glass, almost running out of crazy ideas of things for them to do, and when she gets cleared for in person visits, she gets to see more of everyone else.

Boyle complains of how much Amy is taking over their shared time with Jake.

Holt sits and describe in accurate details and flat tone every progress or setbacks they make in their ongoing Hawking investigation.

Terry manages to pay off some guards so that he can gift Rosa of some good yogurt during his visits.

Scully and Hitchcock visit her once and she almost ends up in solitary for how much they rile her up.

Amy hugs her tight and sometimes softly cries when she goes in to visit her alone and she tells her all the details that Holt and the others leave out.

Gina visits her almost every week, bringing in magazines and coupon books and showing her all the new pieces she’s buying for Babylon. She also keeps her updated of all the craziness that goes on in the precinct, and who Kristen Stewart is or isn’t dating.

Everything moves forward, and except for those first few weeks, everyone keeps treating her like she hasn’t been behind bars for almost three months.

Everything is normal, and Rosa can pretend she doesn’t see Gina’s stomach becoming bigger and bigger, and the child growing and growing to the point that Gina has to take a few extra seconds to sit or stand up.

Rosa is really good at pretending, but when she walks in the visitation room on a Wednesday and finds Charles instead of Gina’s familiar face, she realizes she can’t pretend all that much anymore.

Charles holds up the phone so that Rosa can FaceTime a terribly exhausted Gina and the minuscule human she’s holding in her arms.

The baby’s face is all red and scrunched up, wrinkles covering the forehead and chin, and Gina’s child weakly shakes two tiny fists at the camera.

“That’s the ugliest baby I’ve ever seen.” Rosa says.

Charles inhales a horrified gasp, and Milton’s voice from somewhere out of sight exclaims “Excuse me?!” But Gina bursts into an exhausted laugh.

“She is, isn’t she? Finally someone with some common sense in here. Or well, not in here.”

Rosa smirks at Boyle before looking back at the screen.

“So? What’s the verdict?” She asks, and Gina winks at her.

Gina winks at her and Rosa moves uncomfortably in the chair.

God, it’s been forever since someone has been flirty with her just for the sake of it, and not to try and bribe her for some more toothpaste.

“The Enigma.” Gina proudly announces. “The Enigma Linetti.”

Milton’s face appears in the camera, brows furrowed in confusion.

“Not Boyle?” He asks Gina, and both Gina and Rosa roll their eyes.

“Bitch, first you go pop a baby out of your scrotum, _then_ you get to give them your last name.”

Charles nods, deep in thoughts, from behind the phone. Rosa thinks it really shows how much he cares about her that he hasn’t said a single thing in the whole conversation, trying to give the two friends a bit of privacy.

Milton is still muttering when Rosa focuses back on the FaceTime call.

“So, uh, are you-“

She stops, because Enigma -or is it The Enigma? She’ll have to double check with Gina later- has stretched out her short arms and opened her mouth wide in a yawn.

Rosa doesn’t realize she’s been holding her breath until she catches Gina staring at her with a knowing smirk.

“Fascinating, right? Takes after her mother.”

Rosa scoffs.

“I thought she was gonna say something.”

Charles straight up laughs at that, and Milton barks what sounds like a judgmental “Yeah, right.”

Rosa clenches her jaw, embarrassment washing over her, but Gina only nods.

“I mean, she’s my daughter. I wouldn’t be surprised if she started talking after barely ten hours of clawing her way out of my lady parts.”

Rosa lets the Boyles’ scoffs and chuckles fade into the background, deciding to focus her attention on the baby in Gina’s arms.

She can totally see the fascination people have with babies. Enigma is mesmerizing.

“I bet her first word will be Beyoncé.” She comments, and Gina grins.

“Bitch, please. It will be Carly Rae Jepsen if I have anything to say on the matter.”

The two of them snicker, but Rosa sobers up almost immediately.

“Still an ugly baby.”

They both ignore Milton’s protests in the background.

“The ugliest.” Gina nods.

Enigma’s birth means that Gina not only stops visiting the prison, but that the friends who visit her instead have to FaceTime with Rosa in order for the two of them to talk. But Gina is often too busy with Enigma to stay on FaceTime, and their friends also have to use up their own time with Rosa on putting together a call.

A good solution would be the one to call Gina with her one phone call of the Friday night, when Enigma is generally asleep and when Milton is out with friends.

But that means that Rosa would have to pick between calling Adrian -who has decided to stay in Argentina even after Rosa’s arrest- and calling Gina.

Rosa picks without giving it too much of a second thought.

It’s not like her and Adrian have much to talk about anyway.

Gina’s absence still manages to create a hole in Rosa’s life.

She realizes how much of her sanity at the precinct has been granted by the time she could spend in Babylon with Gina, while her friend would chat the day away and would let her stress slowly evaporated amongst weird crystals and triple plied toilet paper.

Rosa snaps a couple times with her cell mate, and she earns weeks of solitary containment.

Gina is worried when she calls her after that, not knowing what to make of her absence.

Once Rosa tells her what happened, Gina laughs and whoops on the other side of the phone call.

“That’s my girl.” She says, and Rosa smiles.

Her phone call becomes one of the highlights of her week, together with her friends’ visits.

Amy tells her they’re getting closer, but Rosa sees the uncertainty in her eyes.

But Amy promises they’re getting her out of there, and Rosa can’t help but hope.

Gina updates her on Enigma’s growth.

Rosa knows absolutely fuckwat about babies, so she hums and nods and says “That sounds great.”

Gina calls on her bullshit a couple times, but they both know this is how it’s supposed to be.

They also both know that Rosa lives to know about Enigma. If Gina doesn’t mention her progress during a phone call, Rosa always clears her voice and asks: “What about the ugliest baby in the galaxy?” Or “Did you accidentally kill the baby yet?”.

And Gina laughs and tells her all about the giant poop explosion that Enigma has put her through.

Rosa cares and Rosa wishes she could see with her own eyes what her friends’ pictures show.

But one day, when Gina casually mentions that Enigma’s technically old enough to manage through a car drive and jail security, Rosa snaps: “No.”

The silence that follows is a tense one, but Gina’s never been one for tense, so she clears her voice and asks: “No? You don’t want us to come?”

Rosa curses herself and her tongue, and sighs.

She throws a glance behind her shoulders, always checking who might be listening, always valuing her privacy.

She leans more against the wall and presses the phone against her ear.

“I do. I want to see you.” She says, then stops.

“But?” Gina prompts after a few seconds of silence.

“But I don’t want to meet Enigma for the first time when I’m in prison.” Rosa finally admits.

There’s another long pause, and if Rosa knew any better, she could hear Gina smiling through the phone.

But Rosa doesn’t know any better, and it’s been too long since she’s seen Gina anyway, so she waits and waits and waits.

“But that would be sooooo badass!”

Rosa releases the breath she’d been holding and chuckles.

“Yeah, well. Ugly baby gotta wait.”

“Fiiiiiiiine.”

Rosa is in solitary again, sleeping her days away and distractingly and happily braiding her own hair, when a guard opens her door and tells her she’s good to go.

The Nine-Nine did it.

She’s a free woman.

She grabs her bike where Terry parked it during the afternoon, donning her helmet and taking a deep breath of that familiar perfume.

She’s missed it, so much.

For a long moment, she just sits on her bike and inhales the smell of leather and metal and life and freedom.

She’s sitting in the parking lot of the prison that had been her home for the past six or so months.

And she breathes.

And breathes.

And breathes.

Everyone is at Shaw’s, drink in hand, smile on their faces.

Everyone is there to celebrate their freedom.

Everyone except Gina, because she can’t bring a newborn baby to a pub where everyone is most likely going to get incredibly drunk.

Rosa understands that, and Jake does, too.

But Jake has Amy glued to one side and Charles glued to the other, and as much as Rosa likes Holt’s company and Terry’s dumb jokes, she feels like something important is missing.

She knows something important is missing.

She wants to celebrate, but not here.

Charles Boyle covers for her as she sneaks away.

She doesn’t like the way he knowingly nods at her on her way out, but she files that thought away for another day.

She mounts her bike and hits the gas with familiar movements, slaloming through traffic with familiar ease.

She parks on the side of the street and takes the stairs to the fourth floor, still too giddy by the newfound freedom, still full of energy.

She wasn’t allowed to move that much in jail.

She knocks briefly and gently and the door swings open so quickly that she doesn’t even manage to lower her hand.

“Bitch, about time!” Gina exclaims with a grin, and there is pure happiness in her eyes.

“Traffic.” Rosa shrugs, and a second after Gina’s arms are around her neck and they’re hugging, tight.

Rosa breathes again, and that’s another familiar smell she inhales.

Gina’s shampoo, that mix of lavender and mint, that same scent that is so peculiar of Babylon, too, hits her, and she buries her face in her best friend’s neck.

If her bike smells like freedom, Gina smells like home.

They curl up on the couch in front of Gilmore Girls, just like they have done too many nights before, and Rosa takes a long moment to study her friend.

She’s clearly changed, the pregnancy and the motherhood very clear on her features, on her body.

“Motherhood suits you.” She says as they watch Lorelai and Luke dance at the Renaissance Wedding.

Gina scoffs.

“Please, I’ve always been this hot. Y’all are just too blind to notice.”

Rosa shakes her head and looks around the room. It’s the same place she’s visited a few months ago, but the presence of another human is impossible to miss. There are toys scattered all over the floor, a couple bottles rest on the kitchen table, and every little corner has been already baby proofed.

Gina herself is constantly throwing glances at the baby monitor on the coffee table, even if it doesn’t make a sound.

“So how’s the baby? And how’s, how’s Milton?” Rosa asks, forcing the second question out with a bit of annoyance. In every interaction she’s had with the guy, she’s almost always wanted to crash his head through a table.

She sides with Charles in the “Milton Boyle is a disgrace” battle.

“Oh, Milton left. But Iggy is fine, she’s almost managing to sleep through the night and-“

“What.”

Gina shrugs.

“Amy picked it. She thought Enigma was not suited for a baby, and I don’t know how she can talk, really, she tried to alphabetize her _diapers_ -“

Rosa shakes her head.

“No, not Iggy. Although, put a pin on that... I mean Milton. What do you mean he left?”

Gina waves a hand.

“Oh, yeah. Like, two weeks after Iggy was born. He was being stupid, so I told him that if he didn’t like it how it was with me, he could leave, and he did.”

Gina pauses, deep in thoughts.

“So technically I kicked him out. Uh. That’s awesome, I’m still not the dumpee!”

Rosa can’t understand how she can be so non blaze about the situation, and reaches for the remote to pause the show.

Gina turns to look at her.

“I thought you loved him.”

Gina shrugs, not taking her eyes off of Rosa.

“Ew, Rosa. He’s a Boyle.” She points out, then winks. “I have way better taste.”

Rosa doesn’t know what to say. Her brain is slowed down by the amount of information and by the adrenaline rush of being finally free, and she feels like she’s in a haze.

Milton out of the picture is something she didn’t think was going to be happening any time soon, and in all her daydreaming in jail she’d never thought about a life where her and Gina could be...

Be what?

Rosa blinks, and Gina is still looking at her, waiting... Waiting for her to...

_Kiss her._

No.

_Kiss her._

It’s Gina. Her best friend. And she’s just gotten out of prison, she’s tired, overwhelmed. She craves the unfamiliarity of human contact, and she can’t just put Gina through it because of her own-

_Kiss her._

Rosa’s eyes fall on Gina’s lips.

And a desperate cry breaks the silence of the room.

Gina and Rosa both bolt out of the couch, hurrying toward the room Rosa used to know as the storage.

She stops dead at the door, while Gina makes her way inside.

“It’s alright, Iggy Piggy, Mommy is here. And Rosa is here, too.” Rosa hears Gina say, and her breath hitches.

She doesn’t know if it’s the way Gina speaks to the baby, with so much love and honesty and openness, or how she immediately included her in the baby’s reassurances.

“Are you waiting for a Facebook invitation or you’re gonna come meet the great Enigma Linetti?”

Rosa hesitantly steps into what’s been turned into a nursery, eyes on the small human in her friend’s arms.

She looks down at the baby, and the baby coos.

Rosa’s heart skips a beat.

Stupid cute baby, she thinks.

“Not so ugly, I guess.” She says.

Gina laughs, then passes The Enigma into Rosa’s arms.

And Rosa freezes.

The light, yet very real weight of the baby in her arms reminds her once again that she’s here, standing in her best friend’s house, and not in jail anymore.

She’s in a room that is not the solitary containment, in the company of someone who’s not a guard or another inmate.

She’s holding a baby, not a tray with way too little food.

Rosa stares into The Enigma’s dark, curious eyes and her vision blurs.

She doesn’t cry, she keeps it together, but Gina softly places a hand on the small of her back and Rosa’ head dips.

The comfort, the warmth, the life that she breaths in is overwhelming.

“I’m exhausted.” She admits.

Gina nods.

“Doy, I’d be surprised if you weren’t. You’re crashing here tonight.”

Rosa looks up, ready to protest, but Gina lifts a hand to prevent her from speaking.

“You’re crashing here.” She repeats, and it’s final.

Rosa nods, and instinctively presses a kiss on Iggy’s forehead.

When she looks up, Gina is looking at her with something in her eyes that Rosa doesn’t really recognize.

Rosa has just finished cleaning the room and washing Gina’s dishes, and is sitting on the couch trying to decide whether or not she should sleep in her clothes or ask Gina for some, when her friend comes out of the room and tiptoes to her.

“I have a shirt that should fit you. It’s a Beyoncé tour one, so if you drool on it, I’ll murder you.”

Rosa has no doubt about the seriousness of the threat.

She follows Gina in her bedroom and grabs the clothes she’s offering, but as she turns to head out, Gina stops her.

“You’re not sleeping on the couch.”

Rosa slowly turns to look at her, but Gina is already kicking the covers to slide in bed.

“You’ve spent six months in prison. You’re not going to sleep on a couch on your first night as a free woman.”

Rosa wants to complain. She wants to stand her ground and refuse, backtrack, leave, run.

But she’s tired, and she’s human, despite what a lot of her colleagues think.

So she nods and disappears in the bathroom to change, and when she comes back she knows she’s deliriously exhausted because she thinks Gina is staring at her bare legs.

She slips under the covers and hides a smile.

“Are these silk sheets?”

Gina looks at her like she’s suddenly grown another head.

“Duh-uh, I’m not a savage!”

But Rosa is already falling asleep.

She wakes up in the middle of the night, covered in cold sweats, and she finds Gina starfished halfway on top of her, drool dripping from the corner of her mouth.

Rosa takes a deep breath and pulls at the blanket, distractedly and unintentionally forcing Gina off the bed and on the floor.

“What the fu-“

By the time Gina climbs back into bed, Rosa is fast asleep.

When Rosa wakes up again, she pit patters in the kitchen to find out she’s slept until almost lunch time.

“Oh, look, Iggy. The blanket hog is gifting us with her presence.”

Rosa narrows her eyes at Gina, grunting.

“You slapped me in your sleep.”

Gina scoffs, waltzing around the kitchen in an oversized wolf shirt that works as a dress and unicorn slippers.

“Bitch, please. I don’t do things in my sleep. If I slapped you, it was one hundred percent intentional.”

Rosa grunts again, finding the coffee pot and pouring herself a large mug.

When she turns around, she finds a pair of dark eyes on her.

The Enigma Linetti is sitting in her reclining high chair and is staring at Rosa with a weird intensity, all the while sucking on a piece of carrot.

Rosa can finally take a good long look at the baby, and she can’t deny the similarities that Charles has said exist between her and Gina.

The baby is sporting a bright mass of auburn hair, and she’s everything Rosa imagines Gina must’ve been when she was little.

“Good morning, Enigma.” She says, formally, and it’s directed at the baby.

Gina throws her a look.

“She’s a six months old, not an octogenarian.”

Rosa shrugs.

“They both shit and drool like crazy.”

Gina snorts, plopping down at the kitchen table and placing a string of soft cheese in front of her daughter.

“I mean, you ain’t wrong there.” Gina says.

Rosa half listens to her, her attention captured by the way Iggy is now slurping happily on the string cheese.

Iggy releases it with a pop, and before anyone can react, she flips it toward Rosa with horrifying accuracy.

The half munched piece of cheese hits Rosa on the face and then falls on the table, and before she knows it, both Gina and Enigma are howling in laughter.

Rosa wipes her cheek with her palm, a disgusted look on her face.

“Giiiiiirl, what a mean throw!” Gina coos to her daughter. “You are gonna beco-“

The wet piece of cheese splatters on her forehead then rolls on the floor.

Rosa hides her smirk behind the coffee cup, and Gina gasps in outrage.

“How dare you?!” She exclaims. “You attack me in front of my own daughter!”

The kitchen is filled with more laughter: Iggy is having the time of her life, not a stranger to her mother’s antics.

Gina snickers and gets up to pick up the piece of cheese and throw it in the garbage. She bumps Rosa with her hips as she passes her and Rosa narrows her eyes in her direction.

Enigma giggles, then throws her arms out, bouncing slightly in her chair.

“Ah! Ah!” She exclaims.

Gina is in front of the baby faster than Rosa’s ever seen her do anything in her life.

“Up, Iggy?” She asks.

Iggy scrunches her face in disappointment, a pout forming on her face.

She makes a grabby motion with both of her hands.

But she’s looking at Rosa.

“Ah! Ah!”

Rosa blinks.

“Uh?”

Gina seems fascinated and not at all offended by her daughter’s rejection.

“She wants you to pick her up.”

Rosa looks at her best friend first, then at her best friend’s daughter.

They’re both smiling at her like it’s normal to have her walking around the kitchen in nothing but a Beyoncé shirt.

She nods to the baby and picks her up, carefully holding her at arm distance.

“You puke on me, I’ll destroy you.” She warns.

Iggy giggles, and Gina snaps a picture.

“I’m hanging this.”

Rosa takes a deep breath, as something inside of her shifts.


	2. TWO

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 of (i think) 3 is up! Unedited, but up. Enjoy!

CHAPTER TWO

* * *

Because of all the times she’s been put in solitary, it takes longer for Rosa to get cleared for duty.

Jake manages to go back to work almost immediately, even though he’s on desk duty for the first couple of weeks.

Rosa gets bored easily, and the best way to get rid of boredom is to find the company of the least boring people she knows.

She drives to Gina’s, just like she’s done every morning for the past week or so.

She doesn’t even have to knock, because the door swings open right before her eyes, and Rosa slips in.

She sees Gina disappear in the bathroom and she finds a pair of dark eyes already looking at her.

“What are you having for breakfast?” She asks the baby, matter-of-factly.

“Ah!” Iggy screams, happily, lifting her chubby hands.

Rosa has quickly learned that “Ah!” From Iggy can mean multiple things. The most common are up, hi, or apple.

This morning, it looks like it’s all three.

Iggy is already leaning toward her, arms up, with a piece of munched apple clutched in her chubby hand.

Rosa grimaces exaggeratedly, and Iggy laughs.

“Gross.” Rosa says, her tone still flat and emotionless. “You’re a gross, drooly baby.”

Iggy giggles and squeals when Rosa lifts her up.

By the time Gina makes it back to the kitchen, Rosa is sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee in front of her and Enigma on her lap.

It becomes a routine.

Rosa drives to the Linetti’s apartment first thing in the morning, where Gina and Iggy wait for her to have breakfast.

They eat together, Enigma propped up on her high chair or sitting on someone’s legs, and the conversation is carried on mostly by Gina and her rants about this or that Twitter thread.

Rosa is content to listen and nod, used to this part of Gina that never changed, despite the motherhood.

The woman would delay changing a terribly full diaper if that meant catching an Instagram live from Carly Rae Jepsen.

(That’s how Rosa first learns how to change Iggy’s diaper, and she’s thankful Gina is too busy with the stream or she knows she would’ve never let her live down the whole experience)

They start going for walks around the neighbourhood, Gina pushing the stroller and Rosa with her hands shoved down her pockets, while Gina updates her with everything that’s happening at the precinct.

Rosa is in the text chain as well, but somehow Gina manages to get all the dirty details that her coworkers choose not to share.

Iggy is a happy-go-lucky baby, and she listens to her mother’s stories with rapt attention.

Despite being clearly Gina’s kid, though, Iggy doesn’t try to use her words all that much.

She carefully selects her little sounds, and doesn’t make a big effort in trying to learn new words.

One day, in between a story about Scully’s foot fungus and a perp that Charles has accidentally caught without trying, Gina voices her concern on the matter.

“You think she’s okay?”

Rosa looks up from the keys she’s dangling in front of Iggy’s eyes.

They’re sitting outside a Starbucks, with a coffee for her and a Pumpkin Spice Latte that Gina has managed to get even thought it’s clearly not in season.

“Who.”

“Enigma. She doesn’t talk much, but the articles I’ve read say that this is the age where babies start using their words.”

Rosa lowers her keys, and Iggy’s fingers immediately close in on them.

She can see clear worry in Gina’s eyes, and she can see the love her friend has for her baby daughter.

Even then, though, she shrugs.

“She’s fine. I didn’t talk until I was eight months old and my first word was-“

“Baba.”

Rosa looks at Gina, who is too distracted by something on her phone. She recalls mentioning that detail at her bachelorette party, of course, but she’s surprised Gina actually remembers it.

“Yup.” She continues, clearing her voice. “I was a late talker, but I turned out fine.”

Gina purses her lips to contain a half smile.

“I mean, you’re a psychopath who lost it on the printer when it ran out of ink.”

Rosa should be mad, she should feel the tingle of fury that she usually feels whenever someone points out her anger issues.

But this is Gina, who is smiling at her from the other side of the table with a shit eating grin, and Rosa finds herself grinning back.

“Yeah. Totally fine.”

Iggy looks between the two of them, happily sucking on Rosa’s keychain.

Rosa sometimes accompanies them to their daily activities, whether it’s Iggy’s swim class or grocery shopping, and those are the days she ends up staying until dinner time.

Her and Gina take turns cooking dinner, and Rosa doesn’t ask, but Gina never seems to complain about the fact that she’s basically living at her house.

They put Iggy to bed early during the evening, with Rosa quietly observing her night routine and drinking in the sight of her best friend and her baby, cuddling on the couch before Iggy falls asleep.

Sometimes, on rare nights, Rosa watches with more pain in her eyes than joy, and Gina passes a sleepy or asleep baby into her arms.

Rosa lets herself be grounded by the soft weight of the child, trying to chase away the anxiety and the sadness that washes over her.

She misses her job, and although she’s sleeping way better at home than she did in prison, she is still woken up by nightmares.

Those are the nights when Gina puts her foot down and locks the door, forcing Rosa into bed with her.

Gina has weighted blankets and scented candles in her room, she has a white noise machine and she makes Rosa a cup of warm chamomile with honey, and she listens to Rosa’s graphic descriptions of her latest nightmare, before coming out with an interpretation of the dream that leaves Rosa breathless with laughters.

( _Kiss her_. Her brain tells her every time, when Gina is rolling on the bed cackling to one of her own jokes.)

Rosa can’t tell which part is the one that does the trick, but when she spends the night at Gina’s, her nightmares almost never show up.

When they do, Rosa jerks awake covered in cold sweats, and every single time Gina mumbles in her sleep: “Murder them all.” And Rosa smiles, lies back down and does just that.

Rosa gets cleared for work, and going back to the Nine Nine is exactly what she needs to finally find that bit of normalcy that she so desperately craves.

Gina tries to convince her to stay home for another week.

“Who’s gonna change Enigma’s diapers?!” She whines on the morning of Rosa’s return to the precinct.

They’re sitting at the table, Iggy with a whole mushy grape shoved in her mouth under their careful supervision and a cup of applesauce in front of her, Gina still in her wolf pyjamas and hair in a bun, Rosa with her beloved steaming coffee.

“Her mother, I hope.” Rosa bites back, reaching blindly to grab the plastic spoon that’s been thrown out of the baby’s reach and placing it again in front of Iggy.

Iggy grabs it and happily stabs the applesauce, gurgling “Ah! Ah!” Which could mean apple or thank you, Rosa is not entirely sure. She pats the baby on the head anyway.

“But I already pushed her out of my vagina.” Gina counters. “Someone else should be on diaper duty.”

Rosa glares at her.

“I’m honestly surprised you didn’t accidentally kill her while I was in prison.”

Gina grins and lifts her mug in a half cheer.

“Bitch, me too, the fuck.”

Rosa shakes her head. She gets up, cleans Iggy’s face with her bib and lifts her out of her chair.

Holding her at arm length to avoid getting her fresh clothes soaked in applesauce, she carries her to the nursery and places her on her changing table.

Iggy giggles.

“You are the nastiest baby I’ve ever met.” Rosa tells her, in her usual, flat tone.

There must be something in her voice, though, because no matter how disinterested she tries to sound when talking to Iggy, the baby seems to love her.

“Oh-Ah!” Iggy exclaims, and Rosa freezes.

That’s a new sound.

“Gina!” She calls, hearing her lazy steps making their way to the room.

“Sup.”

Rosa turns to look at the squirmy baby on the changing table.

“What did you just say, Enigma?” She asks, seriously.

“Oh-Ah!” Iggy repeats.

Gina holds her breath, then slaps Rosa hard on the arm.

“I can’t believe she’s saying Rosa before Beyoncé! Or Rihanna!” She pauses, then “Or Gina, actually.”

Rosa rolls her eyes.

“She’s not saying Rosa. But that’s definitely a new sound.”

Gina scoffs, lifting up her baby, pointing at Rosa and then asking Enigma: “Hey, Iggy-Piggy. Who dat?”

Iggy giggles again.

“Oh-AH!”

Gina lifts an eyebrow at her, a shit eating grin on her face.

“See.”

Rosa doesn’t know what to say. She doesn’t really know how to process it.

“Uh.” She says.

Gina bounces Iggy up and down, starting a chorus of “Rosa! Rosa! Rosa!” That is immediately followed by Iggy’s “Oh-Ah!”

Rosa watches the two of them, astonished.

She can’t speak, and she’s most definitely late for work, but what she feels in her stomach is something that she hasn’t felt in a really long time.

Gina winks at her, happy as one can be, then shoves Iggy back in her arms with a “Well, Oh-Ah, have fun with her diaper. I think she just pooped some more.”

As soon as she steps foot inside the precinct, she’s welcomed by a chorus of people hollering and screaming, but only Jake dares pulling her into a hug.

Rosa sinks in her friend’s arms, and she feels him shaking.

“All is back to normal, eh?” He says once he lets her go.

She looks at the worry in his eyes and she knows immediately she’s not the only one who’s haunted by their time in jail.

She nods with a half-smile.

“Sort of.” She concedes.

Jake nods and wanders off, and Rosa is left to fend for herself. Charles asks her to join him on his latest case, Amy informs her that she’s kept her desk cleaned and dusted for her, Scully and Hitchcock go so far as offering her a slice of half-eaten pizza, and Terry and Holt call her into the office to express their welcome backs.

Holt assures her that she’s safe now, and Rosa wants to believe him.

There’s something in his eyes that doesn’t quite convince her, but she brushes the thought aside.

Gina’s absence in the office is possibly the most unsettling thing of being back, with no one bossing people around or starting impromptu dance fights with the perps in the holding cell.

And yet, halfway through the morning, Rosa gets a few texts from Gina herself.

She unlocks her phone, where a Iggy with a toothless grin has been set as background by an ever so not sneaky Gina, and reads the texts.

_Pick up toilet paper on ur way home thx._

_Also look._

With attached a gif of a raccoon falling off a flight of stairs.

Rosa rolls her eyes and locks her phone again.

She tries to ignore it when the phone vibrates three more times, but curiosity and exasperation bring her to unlock it again.

She smiles, despite herself, at the three pictures of Gina and Iggy making faces at the camera.

Rosa stares at one of them in particular, where Iggy has a bit of drool coating her chin and Gina is somewhat cross-eyed.

She sets it as new background, then switches her phone to flight mode and goes back to work.

Adrian plops in the Nine-Nine to say hi to her, and Rosa almost blows him off with the excuse of the amount of paperwork she has to go through.

She immediately volunteers when Charles asks if someone is free to help him with his case, and Rosa can’t tell what the uneasiness in her stomach is about, but she has a feeling it has all to do with Pimento and none with the fact that she has a lot of work to catch up with.

It’s only while she’s standing in isle three of the nearest Walmart, a pack of Gina’s favorite brand of toilet paper in one hand and a new toy for Enigma in the other that Rosa clicks in to what the message had said.

Pick up toilet paper on your way home.

On your way home.

Home.

It had felt natural to read those words, that morning. Her brain hadn’t registered what they had meant.

But now, as she’s standing there with the damn toilet paper, she can’t remember when is the last time she’s gone out to do groceries for her own apartment.

What weirds her out the most, though, is how okay and happy she seems to be at the idea of spending so much time at Gina’s apartment. At the idea of calling it home.

When she walks through the door, she is met by a happy Iggy, bouncing in her swing, and no sign of Gina.

Rosa picks Iggy up at her second squeal of “Oh-Ah!”, putting the toilet paper on the couch.

Iggy giggles and slobbers happy drool all over her jacket.

Rosa grimaces and uses Iggy’s bib to clean it up, then calls out for Gina.

No response.

Frowning, she makes her way toward the hallway, checking in the bathroom and the nursery for her friend. She knows that not even Gina is that irresponsible to just leave her baby daughter alone in the hou-

The door squeaks softly when she opens it, but the sound is apparently not loud enough to wake up Gina.

Instead, the woman just rolls on her side and keeps snoring.

Iggy gurgles a series of confused sounds, leaning her head on Rosa’s shoulder.

Rosa feels herself rooted on the spot, her eyes glued on Gina’s face.

God, she’s beautiful.  
Rosa swallows a lump of regret and anger and shakes herself out of the trance. She slowly places the Enigma on the mattress before settling herself on the other side, successfully and safely sandwiching the baby between herself and Gina.

She pulls out her phone, switches it to silent then opens her texts.

 ** _What was my first word, as a baby?_** She texts Adrian.

Her fiancé answers almost immediately.

**I don’t know? Gun? Sex?**

Rosa frowns and stares at the screen, where the three dots have re-appeared.

**Why?**

She types **_Nothing._** Then pockets her phone once again.

Enigma stares at her with big eyes, her whole fist stuck inside her mouth and drool covering her whole chubby forearm.

“Gross baby.” Rosa says, and Iggy pops her fist out of her mouth and splats her palm on Rosa’s cheek.

Rosa smiles at her and Enigma smiles back.


End file.
